John Bercow has attracted controversy throughout his political career – but how much influence did his Barnet upbringing have on the person he is today? REBECCA LOWE speaks to the new Speaker of the House about his memories of the borough.

BURNT Oak may not be renowned for producing political greats, but on June 22 all that changed. John Bercow, born and raised in the area, was proclaimed the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons, and the first of Jewish origin.

But how did he come to hold this prestigious position at 46 – the youngest age of any Speaker since 1839 – after growing up in a family with few political aspirations? His father was a “scrupulously honest” second-hand car salesman and taxi driver, and his “hard working” mother was a part-time legal secretary, whose own mother worked in a laundry.

“I think my original political views were slightly to do with discussions with Dad,” he says, speaking from the plush sofa of his new Westminster apartment.

“He had strong, traditionally Conservative views about most matters. For much of his life, he was self-employed and a lot of self-employed people tend to be Conservative. He believed in the creation of wealth, the idea we should stand on our own two feet.”

Mr Bercow's parents split up in the mid-Seventies, around the time he was leaving Frith Manor Primary School, in Woodside Park, for Finchley Manorhill School, in Summers Lane.

Only 12 when the divorce was finalised, the young Speaker moved with his mother and elder sister to North Finchley and found comfort in the form of a primary school teacher called John Stringer.

“He was a wonderful, encouraging man," he says. "He was quite tough, but he felt there was something good in me, and that I could achieve something worthwhile.”

When he was not studying, Mr Bercow spent much of his childhood playing tennis – and very nearly turned professional. He was a member of the Finchley Manor Tennis Club, in Lyndhurst Gardens, and had lessons from Bobby Wilson, the British Number 1 in the Sixties, who now lives in Totteridge.

More recently he played with David Cameron for various clubs, but they split up when his Tory colleague became party leader. A canny diplomat, Mr Bercow claims he “doesn't know” who was better because they only played doubles.

“He was huge fun to play with because he was a good loser, though he hated losing, and he was never critical of his partner,” he says.

“I don't know if we'll ever play again. Anything is possible, I suppose.”

A bout of bronchial asthma scuppered the Speaker's future tennis career, though he “wasn't good enough anyway”, and a 1979 meeting with Finchley MP Margaret Thatcher at Woodhouse College, in Finchley, cemented his passion for politics.

“Growing up in Margaret Thatcher's constituency had a big impact on me. I went to her final campaign meeting days before the 1979 election and I managed to get myself introduced to her.

“She was a very impressive figure and boomed at me that I had to join the Young Conservatives. And I did.”

Mr Bercow's vehemently right-wing views softened, he says, after he left home "and mixed more widely" - and they shifted markedly towards the centre after the Tories' crushing defeat in the 2001 election.

This was not political opportunism, as some of his critics have claimed, he says, but a pragmatic move to save the party from collapse.

"There was some evidence at that point that the public had quite a high opinion of Tony Blair, and my party's right-wing stance just didn't wash.

"I started to think: how can my party, committed to free enterprise and initiative, progress? And I believed we had to fight for the centre."

Despite this belief, Mr Bercow concedes that he still retains his high opinion of Baroness Thatcher's 11-year reign.

“Did I think Mrs Thatcher was a good thing for the country? Yes, I did then and I do now. I think there were many great features of her leadership.”

Ian McCleod, Norman Tebbit, Tony Crosland, Nigel Lawson and Ken Clarke are other “brilliant political figures” the Speaker admires – but he stops short of commenting on current leaders.

“This role requires me to cast aside my previous political commitments,” he says.

“This is not as a means to escape the Conservative Party, as some have suggested - that is complete and arrant nonsense - but because I feel I can do a good job, and be fair-minded and effective.”